Scraped Knees
by MusicalDaydream
Summary: [Rewrite of Learning From The Young & Innocent] Funny how the innocence of children sometimes holds the greatest lifelearning advice of all. .


A/N: Scraped Knees is a rewrite of my old fic, Learning from the Young and Innocent. It's almost the same thing, just with fairly big edits and a sequel; therefore making it a two shot.

This is a gift to all of you old school JouxMai shippers- because you guys rock so much. I miss the Yugioh fandom so much, but without you guys, it's almost worthless. I DO realize that there are probably a few NEW good writers, but it's just not the same with all of us hopping into different fandoms &/or quitting So Darkhope, Iba, Mai Wheeler, Lu, and everyone else who I've probably forgotten, you guys are AMAZING. This is for you.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh.

Part 1: The Babysitting Job

16-year-old Mai Valentine walked up to the house, after hastily saying good-bye to her father, whom she was holding a grudge against. She took a long, deep, sigh, and said to herself, "I hope this kid isn't like the last one. What kind of girl has to go through all of THIS just to get a car? But then, that other kid was a total brat who pulled my hair… kids can't get that much worse than that, can they?" Her fingers slowly crept up the wall, and pushed the doorbell. "I guess I'll find out soon enough…"

Oh yes… you guessed it, _another_ baby-sitting job. Mai wasn't the type to be doing it because she liked kids, or _enjoyed_- yeah, right, what kind of idiot on crack would enjoy having the termites pounce on her? All of the trouble would be worth it- because she wanted a car. That's right, a car. Now, most teens' parents would've bought the car for, let's say, a sweet sixteen birthday… but Mai's parents were different. They believed that if she wanted a car, she'd have to EARN it herself- which was why she was holding a grudge against her father at the moment.

A pleasant-looking brunette woman answered the door, with a small girl in her arms. "Ok… um, you're only going to be watching Joey today, and he's in his room for time-out now. The emergency numbers are posted on the fridge, and I'm gonna be taking Serenity to the eye doctor and also getting some groceries. My cell number is with the emergency ones, but only call if there's a desperate problem. If Joey's hungry, give him a donut and he'll be fine. Any questions?"

Mai shook her head, and watched Mrs. Wheeler struggle to get into the car, leaving quickly. Here goes a few hours of nothing, Mai thought. She took off her shoes, and started to the couch, hoping that the Wheelers would have at least a few channels on TV to watch.

And **BAM!** Something crashed onto the ceiling above her head. She sighed, "I was HOPING for peace and quiet. I guess not." Disappointed and angry, she went upstairs to look. There was a little boy, about eight years old, sitting on the floor innocently playing with a stuffed animal.

Mai glared at him. "What did you do?"

His mess of sandy blond hair seemed to stand up nervously. "Nothing." He smiled a toothy grin.

The cute act isn't going to be enough for my disruption of peace and quite, Mai frowned to herself. "Well, there's no one else in this house, and I know that I wasn't doing anything destructive."

"Hey, do you want to play duel monsters with me?" The little boy asked, clearly wanting to change the subject. The cracked picture frame on the side of the bed and the little cut on the boy's arm was enough evidence to show what he was doing.

If you play with him… maybe he won't break anything else, Mai thought, eying the pieces of shattered glass. "Ok."

"Um… what's your name? I'm Joey." His once confident face was no longer there, he now looked shy and intimidated by Mai.

"Mai." She smiled a little.

Joey handed Mai a stuffed blue-eyes white dragon. "You're gonna be the bad guy, ok? He's the evil dragon that's attacking the city." He held up a red-eyes black dragon plushie. "And I'm the good dragon that saves the city!"

"Why should the black one save the city? I think the white one's prettier… don't you?" Mai looked at the stuffed animal in thought.

Joey growled at the thought. "No. The Blue-Eyes is evil. It doesn't matter how pretty you are. You can still be a hero."

"Um… ok, I guess."

A few minutes later, Joey had to go to the bathroom. Mai patiently waited for him to come back, but once he didn't, she decided to take a look at the picture that was cracked. She looked at it and frowned- it was a typical studio picture, of father and son. The cracks obviously showed that there was something so wrong with it that Joey had to take physical measures to break.

He had still yet to come back a few minutes later, and Mai decided to walk towards the bathroom to see what was taking so long. She could hear the sink water running, so she opened the ajar door of the bathroom. There was Joey, struggling at the sink, trying to wash the cut off of his arm.

"OW!" He screamed in pain from the cut.

Mai walked over to him in hopes of him calming down. She grabbed a dry towel that was lying around, and patted the cut with it. "You do know that water makes cuts worse… don't you?"

Joey looked up at Mai with watery eyes and a different expression on his face than before. "No…"

-

After the cut had no longer bothered Joey, the two walked downstairs. Mai gave him a donut and sat next to him at their kitchen table.

"Hey Joey… is there a reason why you don't like the blue-eyes?"

The little boy's nose wrinkled in disgust. "It's because a really mean boy at school, Seto Kaiba, loves blue-eyes. He's so mean to me and my sister… just because we don't have a lot of money." He looked at his half-finished donut again, then back at Mai. "I'm not really hungry anymore."

"Oh…" Mai suddenly felt a small pain of guilt. She was similar to Seto when she was younger.

"_Hey, Kami… where'd you get that shirt? The garbage dumps?" Mai giggled. _

_Kami looked down… "My parents don't have a lot of money…" she mumbled. _

"_Even if MY parents were poor, they wouldn't make me pick clothes out of a garbage dump!"_

The young boy saw the sadness creep to Mai's face. "It's ok. Don't be sorry. Too many people feel sorry for us already… at least that's what my mom said after she and Dad got divorced."

Maybe that's why he was so upset about the picture… Mai thought to herself.

"She divorced him after he hit Serenity… my sister."

The two sat around for a while, with Joey watching cartoons, and Mai starring into space. What time is it? She thought. She wanted the job to be over- it was more of a guilt session than anything else.

The TV flicked off. "Mai, can we go to the park? It's right down the street, and I'm bored." The brown-eyed boy asked her.

Mai reluctantly got up off the couch, and put on her shoes. "Let's go, then, Joey."

She held the boy's small hand in her own as they walked down the street, into the small park nearby. The dandelions there seemed to grin at them while the sunshine smiled as it poured down on them.

Mai sat down on the bench, and watched Joey try to catch a bird gliding in the air. "I'd hate to tell you this, Joey, but I don't think you'll be able to catch it."

"I know, but it doesn't hurt to try. I wanna bring it home to my sis. She loves anything that I give her."

"Why don't you pick her flowers instead?"

"Well…" Joey paused. "I pick flowers for her all the time and I want to give her something new this time! And… well… mommy says she's not able to see things well. If I catch her a bird, then she can hear it sing to her forever… but if I give her flowers, the smell will eventually wear out…"

Inside, Mai groaned. WHY was this kid so… perfect? Like an angel? So much the opposite of what she was like when she was young? She never had any siblings… and when she went somewhere, she never stopped to think of getting small gifts for her family! Did she do something wrong her entire life?

In the middle of her thought, she didn't hear the loud thump on the sidewalk. The only thing that snapped her back into reality was Joey's helpless cry.

"Joey… what happened?" Mai looked at him in concern.

"The bird… it flew… I slid… and it hurts." He pointed to his knee, but in his position, it almost seemed like he was pointing at his heart.

His knee had a fairly large scrape on it. After Mai took a glance at it, she winced. It looked like it hurt; she didn't blame Joey for crying out so loudly.

"Can you walk?" She asked.

"I… I don't know." He attempted to get up, clutching onto Mai's hand. "I guess I can."

"Let's go, then. We'll have to clean up your knee when we get home."

"Ok. I might not get a bird for her today… but I will, someday." Joey murmured to himself as he limped, holding Mai's hand tightly.

The two walked home in silence.

Mai opened the door and helped Joey limp inside. He sat down on the couch as Mai walked over to him with a wet washcloth. She looked at his knee in slight disgust, and then wiped the washcloth over his knee as he winced.

"Are you okay?" Mai asked.

"Yeah…" There was something odd about the way that he looked at her, with his big brown eyes.

"I'm going to get you a band aid." She walked into the kitchen, looking for one.

She heard the hum of Mrs. Wheeler's car as it went up the driveway as she walked over to Joey to gently stick the band-aid on his knee. She watched Mrs. Wheeler get out of the car. When she brought Serenity into the home, she asked Mai, "So how did it go?"

Mai answered, "Ok. He got a scraped knee, but it should be okay now."

Mrs. Wheeler took a look at Joey, who was sitting on the couch happily. "Now… oh yes, I need to pay you." She flipped through her wallet, and blushed. "I… I spent all of my cash on groceries. Can I pay you in a few days?"

Mai gave her question some thought. "Um… it's ok. You don't have to pay me." Mai said. "You need the money."

"Hey, Mai?" Joey tugged on her sleeve. "Will you come again?" He looked at her with hopeful eyes.

Mai looked at the child, and slightly smiled. "Sure. I'll come back whenever you need me to."


End file.
